Let go of that monster girl!

The blond-haired guy.

The blond-haired guy was turning around in front of the dressing mirror. This was a teacher's uniform personally designed by the Baron, with a narrow waistline and a skirt that just barely covered his knees.

The beautiful bodycon mini skirt; the Baron even said it would be nice to have a pair of stockings.

The blond-haired guy turned around, glanced at the lines behind him, and saw his golden fox tail sticking out from the hole above the skirt, swaying fluffily from side to side.

Not far away, Fox Seventeen was hunched over a table, battling a mountain of ledgers and official documents. Papers were piled up on the table, and the pen tip scratched across the paper.

She looked up from the paper and casually joked:

"I didn't expect you to be able to read."

"I used to learn these things by secretly reading novels when no one was around, memorizing each word one by one. It took me several years. But it was useless. The servants didn't need these skills. The head of the family didn't hire Yellow Fox as an accountant. I went to ask him once and got beaten up."

Fox Seventeen paused for a moment, then continued writing.

The blond-haired guy walked over in a few steps, grabbed Fox Seventeen's bushy brown tail with both hands, and hung the whole fox on it.

"Seventeenth Sister, how did you become the market manager? For the sake of this pretty dress, please teach me."

Fox Seventeen poked her face open with one finger, but his tone was not harsh.

"You little blondie, you're so vain."

The blond-haired fellow loosened his tail, took two steps back, put his hands on his hips, puffed out his chest, and deliberately lowered his voice, mimicking Fox Seventeen's usual tone.

"You must be addressed with proper titles when you're out in public!"

She kept a straight face for two seconds, then burst out laughing, clutching her stomach and bending over.

Fox Seventeen smiled and put down his pen.

"Alright, alright, Fox, look how vain you are."

After laughing his fill, the blond-haired guy straightened up and looked at Fox Seventeen for a while.

"Seventeenth Sister, you look quite pretty when you smile."

"Don't I laugh all day long?"

The blond-haired guy shook his head and said:

"Hmm, if Seventeenth Sister doesn't pretend, she never smiles normally."

Fox Seventeen lowered his head, picked up the pen again, a slight smile playing on his lips, and his gaze returned to the numbers in the ledger.

"Then I'll smile more often from now on."

Suddenly, the blond-haired guy reached out with both hands, pinched Fox Seventeen's cheeks, and completely ruined the smile she had been trying to maintain.

"Seventeenth Sister is beautiful even when she's not smiling; she's beautiful as long as she's relaxed."

The blond-haired guy let go and took a step back.

Fox Seventeen rubbed her flushed cheeks, smiled and sighed; this time it was genuine.

"Oh, you silly fox."

The blond-haired guy had already reached the door, one hand on the door frame, turned around, and blinked.

"Seventeenth Sister is a silly fox too."

Chapter 136 Shelter

The weather is getting colder; winter is just around the corner.

The development of the new market gradually got on track, and the number of caravans increased rapidly, from the initial three or five scattered caravans to now filling the entire main street on major market days.

The city wall surrounding the new market is also mostly completed.

Along the moat, a row of tiny mouse girls were wielding large shovels, digging away at the soil.

Several groups of female hamsters used hamster wheels to hoist precast slabs onto the wall.

The rat girl next to her stood by the mixing pile, stirring the mortar. She used the excavated soil to mix the mortar, and then poured the mixed mortar into small buckets and hung them on the city wall.

Several other beast girls also mingled among the rats, shoveling dirt. The snow cow girls' giant shovels were equivalent to five shovels of the rats in one scoop, but after they finished shoveling, they stood obediently waiting for the rats to move the dirt mounds away, cooperating quite well.

The city wall has taken shape. The lower part is built with solid blocks of rock quarried from the site, while the upper part is filled with precast slabs from the low hills.

The construction was extremely fast, and the bricks were neatly and squarely laid out, surprisingly not ugly at all.

The entire city wall is only about six meters high, and with the drop of the outer moat, the defensive height is about seven or eight meters.

It's not exactly sturdy, but for an ordinary town, it's absolutely impregnable, enough to send most bandits packing. As long as the Chimera Beasts don't grow cannons on their backs to attack the city, it's more than enough to handle small hordes of beasts.

Molen looked up at the top of the city wall. From this angle, he could see over the wall and onto the tall countdown sign at the market entrance.

A long wooden stick is clumsily trying to flip the countdown sign, under which should be a short mouse girl.

After flipping the wrong wooden sign, displaying the countdown as 995 days, a soft "squeak" came from below, as if someone had pulled its ear. The silly wooden stick was given a new pair of hands, and the time changed to [094].

There are just over three months until the disaster month, and one month until winter.

Ugh……

Time is of the essence, and Morren was starting to worry.

A six-meter-high wall is still not as reassuring as a low mountain that is more than ten meters high, equipped with mining rails and tons of artillery.

Trying to survive the disaster month with only a six-meter-high city wall and the mobile city defense facilities transported from the low mountains is really gambling with one's life.

Molen couldn't possibly dig a shelter on the spot and let the residents of the North Market hide inside.

To be on the safe side, the most likely solution will be to dismiss the merchants and relocate the rats to the low hill.

However, if this is the case, all the facilities at the Aishan North Market will have to be relocated and moved back after the disaster month. Those that cannot be moved may be destroyed during the disaster month.

The North Market will need a lot of time to rebuild next year, and the caravans will also need time to regroup.

If we keep going on like this, when will we finally show the noble ladies the big stick of capitalism?

She also promised Jimmy that she would rescue all the cats from the cat shelter before the month of disaster, which would take quite a while.

Headache.

Molen sighed and sorted out his thoughts.

Never mind, maybe we'll come up with a new solution later.

He decided to proceed step by step first, since the city wall was the easiest structure to preserve when unattended, so he would continue building the city wall first.

Moren walked through the construction site of the city wall, his feet sinking into gravel and mud. The rat girls stopped what they were doing and waved to him.

"Greetings, Your Excellency!"

"Your Excellency, come and see how the rats work!"

Molen waved to them and casually handed a tool to a mouse that couldn't reach the scaffolding.

The beast girls who were working at the construction site also stopped what they were doing. The snow cow girls bowed respectfully to Moren, but their eyes held the submissive look of slaves towards their master.

Molen did not linger, but crossed the walled area and entered the market district.

The market area has changed a lot. The number of tents has decreased significantly, and they have been replaced by neat wooden and stone buildings lined up along the street, with even spaces left for future expansion.

Fluorite streetlights have also been installed on both sides of the street, emitting a steady glow.

Most caravans were busy preparing their goods, with workers carrying loads and unloads, while the snow oxen chewed hay in their pens.

On the street, only a few mice were chasing and playing, tossing a ball made of rags in their hands, squeaking and laughing incessantly.

Markets are not cities, after all. Caravans can only carry a limited amount of goods, and the amount they can take away is also limited, so they are highly mobile.

To improve transaction efficiency and facilitate the travel of caravans from the distant East who had traveled for months, the market was held every three days for a small market and once a month for a large market. At other times, only a few large caravans would have permanent shops open.

Today is a time for rest.

If it weren't for the fact that today was the day the foreman rats were having their meeting, Molen would have planned to take a good rest.

Suddenly, a small figure rushed out from the group of frolicking mice.

A dirty little catgirl, with half a mushroom cake in her mouth, came running and kicked away the tattered ball the mice were playing with.

The mice stood there, stunned.

"squeak?"

From behind, a snake-woman merchant swam rapidly, furious.

"Stop right there, you little thief!"

The little cat girl nimbly squeezed through the bottom of the crate, flipped over a pile of burlap sacks, and then squeezed through the gap between two wooden barrels.

The place she ran through was a mess; wooden barrels were overturned, sacks rolled over, and dried fruit was scattered all over the ground, leaving behind a bunch of dumbfounded mice and cats.

However, the snake girl's snake tail has extremely strong off-road capabilities; its thick tail can directly crush obstacles without slowing down at all.

The kitten was running too fast, and her thin limbs began to go weak. She slipped on some gravel at a corner.

She fell forward, rolling several times on the ground. The mushroom pancake in her mouth flew out, and the other food she had hidden in her arms scattered all over the ground.

The kitten was lying on the ground, covered in mud, with scrapes on its knees and arms.

But the first thing she did after getting up was to pounce on the mud-covered mushroom pancake, pick it up, and stuff it into her mouth, while simultaneously tucking the other pancakes scattered on the ground under her small body and curling up into a ball.

The snake woman caught up, and in a fit of rage, grabbed the kitten's leg, lifted her upside down, and shook her violently.

It all came down in a blur.

Mushroom cakes, dried mushrooms, and shredded mushrooms fell out from the gaps in the kitten's tattered cloth, scattering all over the ground.

Merchants who can walk in the dark zone are no pushovers. Seeing that the snake girl was about to eat meat, Moren quickened his pace and walked over.

Upon seeing Moren, the snake girl immediately turned around, her snake tail slapping the ground in anger.

"Your Excellency, this little thief has stolen an entire basket of my rations these past few days! An entire basket!"

The kitten girl, held upside down, stopped struggling. Her mouth was stuffed full of food as she chewed with difficulty. Her face was covered in dirt and debris, and her small eyes looked fearfully at the unfamiliar nobleman in front of her.

Her little hands didn't stop; she kept trying to grab the food that was falling out of her clothes and stuff it into her arms.

The snake girl shook the kitten a couple more times, and the last few pieces of cake fell out.

"Your Excellency, you must punish her! If you don't punish thieves in the market, who will dare to do business here in the future! These kinds of thieves should all be beheaded in the market frequented by noble ladies in the north..."

Snake Girl glanced at Moren, swallowed the rest of her sentence, and angrily shook the last bits of food off the cat.

In the market for noble ladies in the north, all of them had their hands cut off and were then hanged at the market entrance as a warning.

In the wonderful Middle Ages, being imprisoned was a luxury, and insignificant commoners often received only insignificant treatment.

Molen gestured for the snake girl to turn the cat over.

The snake woman snorted, flipped the kitten over, grabbed it by the scruff of its neck, and held it up in front of Moren.

This would make Moron look at her as an equal.

"Is the mushroom pancake delicious?"

The kitten swallowed the food in its mouth with great effort, its voice soft and sweet.

"It doesn't taste good..."

"You stole it even though it's not tasty?"

"This one's cheaper...and if you get caught...you're more likely to survive..."

The snake girl looked at the food that had been ruined all over the ground and gasped in heartache. It was covered in mud and could no longer be sold.

Molen looked at the food scattered on the ground, as if he realized something. He reached out and stroked the kitten's head, then lifted the hem of the tattered cloth covering her.

Below was a small, thin body with ribs that could be counted, its skin covered with old and new whip marks and bruises.

The snake girl also gasped.

Molen lowered his clothes and stroked the kitten's head again.

"Little guy, you're in trouble, you know that?"

The kitten nodded, its ears pressed against its head.

"You don't know. If you did, you would know that free nutritional paste is being given away in the market every day."

The kitten froze, a bewildered look on its dirty face.